


if i could fly

by inlovewiththeirlove (fieldofdiabolicalbutlovelykillers)



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: M/M, Q-Era, Somewhere between angst and fluff, Undefined Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-24
Updated: 2018-06-24
Packaged: 2019-05-27 17:45:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15029855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fieldofdiabolicalbutlovelykillers/pseuds/inlovewiththeirlove
Summary: it's summer before the start of the rest of their lives and jack and kent, they don't know what they are





	if i could fly

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the pimms week prompt: Long Distance

Jack had been counting sheep for the past five minutes. That was perhaps the dumbest idea he’s ever had, why did he even think that would work? It was a bizarre notion from movies that counting sheep would bring about sleep when in reality even after he got past the absurdness of what he was doing, each few sheep would distract his mind and take him down a different daydream. The last one wasn’t a daydream, though it felt like one, it was from earlier in the day.

Their fingers had touched and Jack had never been more freaked out. He had looked around to make sure no one had seen, while Kent was staring at the ground. What was he thinking? He had wanted to do more, to grab Kent’s hand, to hold it but he froze up. That’s what happened every time. If Kent hadn’t made the first move, Jack wondered if they’d ever gotten here. Though he wan’t sure what they were.

_“Kent, feel free to stay back for a few days, we’d love to have you.”_

Jack had wanted to hug his mom and make sure Kent could be here. But now, he was in a different timezone and the house was too big to be home again. He wondered if he should call him. Though it was probably very late there, he didn’t even know whether Kent wanted to hear from him.

Jack didn’t even know what he’d say.

_“Hey Kenny, I…”_ Freeze again. 

Jack decided that this was too much and his mouth suddenly felt too dry, he got up and made his way downstairs, tiptoeing to not wake up his parents. He ended up at the fridge getting some ice for his water and his eye caught a photograph that had been on the fridge for years, but had always blended into the background. It was Jack and Kent, a few years ago, after their first win together at hockey camp. It had been dumb, the win wasn’t important, there was no tournament to win, no trophy to work towards, the other team was just the other half of camp but Jack had wanted a photo and someone’s parent had taken it on a shitty disposable camera and Alicia had put it up.

Maybe his younger self was braver than he is.

_/\\_

Alicia smiled in a way only someone who spent their life smiling for a living did. It was warm. It was welcoming.

It felt distant.

She probably meant it, he wouldn’t be an imposition. But he had to go home, back to Jersey.

Jack said goodbye in a way that only he could, “Uh, I charged the PSP for you, in case you get bored.”

“Thanks, man.” The words meant more, they both knew that. Their fingers grazed as Jack handed him the console and Kent wanted. Wanted to grab him, kiss him wanted for Jack to ask him to stay, but this wasn’t like those romantic teen dramas Leah watched. There would be no dramatic confession, no acknowledgement of last night, the night before that or last month when the l word had slipped out. Jack wasn’t Chad Micheal Murray and Kent wan’t a girl who needed to be convinced that she was beautiful. There was no room in their lives for anything but friendship, and that was fine. It was all fine.

Kent got on the plane and didn’t think twice about Jack. Leah picked him up at the airport, his mom was at work but she had made some risotto before leaving.

Leah and him talked, but she asked too many questions and Kent couldn’t quite tell her anything other than hockey.

She had to leave eventually, she had a class to go to, so Kent roamed the empty apartment. There were friends he could probably see, if he wanted to. He could go down the street to the bar where Lenny worked. Lenny had been his biggest fan and he sometimes let Kent have a drink. But he didn’t leave his room.

He had to tell the part of him that wanted Jack to be here with him to shut up multiple times as he loaded up GTA on his shitty computer. At least while playing the game, he only wished for Jack’s much nicer computer was here.

He wondered if jack would go swimming today, it hadn’t been hot enough for them to go together. Jack had a pool in his backyard. He looked outside his window and saw another brick wall, with some drunk man peeing on the bricks outside.

Even if things were different, they could never work. Yet. Kent’s brain didn’t shut up and he collapsed on his bed and tried to sleep, to not think of Zimmermann. Teammate, friend, nothing more.

He needed to accept that.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!


End file.
